Costs of getting on the track

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

The cost related to getting on the track for track days, and especially for racing, can escalate very quickly to outragous levels if you don't keep an eye on yourself. As an example the average length of time a racer lasts in the racing organization I race with is about 3 seasons, the prime reason for that is definately money. I personally dug such a huge hole financially (due to going racing) back in the late 90's that I was very near filing for bankruptcy - had I not been someone who is very against bankruptcy I probably would have done it. To this day (2006) I still owe money on credit cards from my racing in the late 90's, that should give you an idea how massive my debt really was! Since going racing by doing it "the wrong way" financially back in the 90's, I have learned how to do it "the correct way". I personally pay for everything to go racing without using credit anymore, unless an absolute emergency like travel problems or unexpected expense like getting a flat tire on my bike or suddenly not being able to share travel and hotel costs with someone else who planned on going racing with you, and then didn't go.

Probably the best advice I can give someone looking to get out on the track is to PAY CASH FOR EVERYTHING! I suggest looking at all your expenses per month and figuring out where ALL your money goes (bills, food, gas, entertainment, etc.) and see exactly how much money you realistically have left over to get out on the track. I tell people to figure out how much money can they realistically live without EVERY paycheck during the ENTIRE year. As an example, if that number is $50 per week you would have $2500 per year to spend on your track time (figuring in 2 weeks of missed work for whatever). If you plan on getting on the track in the near future I would highly suggest getting a seperate checking account with a Visa or Mastercard check card just for your track expenses, in this topic I will call this your "RACING ACCOUNT". You should start immediately depositing the amount you figured you could live without every week and see if you truely can live without it, EVERY WEEK!

Now that you know you have $2500 to spend you should figure out where you want to spend that money. Let's say that the track days your looking at doing are $175 per day, gas for your bike $25 (pump gas, not race fuel), your travel expenses (gas) round trip are $75, you're planing to stay in a hotel the night before the events - $65, and you have to buy a set of decent tires for $300. Since you should be able to use those tires for a season (unless your REALLY fast) it's a one time expense for that season, if you need tires more often this will consume your available money out of your racing account very fast. A variable that many people miss in the cost equation is lost time from work if they go to a track day that is on a normal day they work. Basically you need to figure out what your lost TAKE HOME wages are for that day and deduct it from your racing account, this is because your not going to magically have that money that you normally have every week for your bills if you take time off work. This may seem overly obvious, but it's missed by many people and is a variable that keeps putting you further and further in the hole financially if you don't include it. Think of it like this, every day you miss from work (that you don't get paid for) means you make that much less money that year, on top of that your spending quite a bit of money on that day so the financial effects are very rapid.

Using the example costs above, and a lost TAKE HOME wage of $100 per day, you can figure the number of track days you can go to (on work days) as follows (remember this is purely an example and your costs will vary from this):

EXPENSES PER EVENT THAT ARE ON A DAY YOU NORMALLY WORK
$100 lost wages
$175 track day fees
$ 25 gas for your bike
$ 75 travel costs
$ 65 hotel cost
$440 total cost per event (for this example only!)
x5 events
$2200 total for 5 events

RACING ACCOUNT
$2500 starting balance
- $300 tires
$2200
-$2200 cost of 5 track day events (example only!)
$0 Balance

In this example there are ways you could save money and better use your money, I will give some examples. If you can find just 1 other person to share expenses with your costs would drop in the above example by $350 by splitting hotel and travel costs for 5 individual events. Another possibility is to camp at the track, which hopefully would be free or minimal cost, this would save you another $162.50 in this example if splitting expenses with someone. Adding these things together you could save $512.50 per season just by splitting expenses with 1 person and camping at the track. That's money that could go toward another track day, new tires, or just save it for future track time or better equipment. A couple other things you can do to save money are to attend 2 track days in a row (this saves money by eliminating extra travel costs of attending 2 seperate days), you can also only attend track days that are held on days that you normally don't work, this will eliminate the lost wages part of the equation.

Actual racing is somewhat of a different animal, it's more expensive and requires dedication if you want to compete in a full season. This also normally requires that you take time off work to attend at least some of the races that are thruout your region. I live in an almost ideal location for my racing region (Northern Illinois), I can make it to every track in the Midwest region by leaving after I get off of work and arriving by 2am at the furthest destination I go to (which is Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas). This allows me to miss the least amount of days off work, and still be able to get some sleep before morning registration and practice at the track, that trip is over 500 miles each way and takes me a little over 8 hours. This is the kind of thing you get use to doing as a motorcycle roadracer, travel is a requirement and you have to learn to enjoy it or it will probably become a boat anchor to your racing enjoyment. This is one of the big differences between track days and racing, the amount of travel you will be doing and the costs associated with it are substaintially more than most track day riders are willing to invest. An example of this is what many racers consider a "close event", which I hear often times as an event that is within a 5-6 hour drive each way, to which I agree. I have heard track day riders complaining so many times of having to drive 2 hours (or less) to go to a track day, that to me is REALLY CLOSE, but I suppose it's all relative to what your use to. A variable that kinda sucks with racing is the fact that the practice day is generally the day before the event and it falls on a work day (usually Friday), so you lose your wage, plus the cost of the practice day ($80 at Blackhawk Farms), plus the gate fee. If you don't do the practice day your practice time will be limited usually to 1-3 short practice sessions before the races each day, depending on the event.

Racing expenses include the figures I gave previously about track days, but at elevated rates, and include a few more costs. The following is a typical CONSERVATIVE race weekend for me going alone to an average track that is 5-6 hours away while racing with CCS, not attending the Friday practice day, not buying race tires, and missing work Saturday.

$100 lost wages
$175 travel costs
$130 hotel
$40 race fuel (mild race fuel with conservative 50/50 mix with pump gas)
$25 gate fee
$190 race entry fees
$660 TOTAL

That $660 would get me (2) 15 minute practice sessions on Saturday and Sunday morning and (4) 16-20 mile sprint races over the course of the event for a total of (8) sessions on the track. This is an example of me racing very conservatively and being in the slower 1/2 of the racers.

As an example of what it was like when I ran with the fast guys I have to increase the costs quite a bit. The added costs would include actual race fuel at about $16 PER GALLON, a set of race tires per event, missed wages on Friday to do the practice day and it's added cost as well, and racing 2 more classes for the event. This would put me at a PER EVENT cost of apx. $1200! Now of course I can save money as well by buddying up with another racer to split costs, but this doesn't always happen and the end result is still quite alot of money.

I certainly don't want to scare people away from racing or track days by revealing this information, instead I want to arm you with the knowledge of what your getting into and to prepare yourself accordingly. The "Racing Account" I spoke of earlier is probably one of the best things you can do to last in this sport because it doesn't leave you caught unexpectedly with massive expenses you didn't anticipate ahead of time. I have been to the depths of credit Hell personally and I can tell you it's not an enjoyable place to be, anything you can do to prevent even begining down that road is highly advised. I can tell you that since I switched to "paying as I go" for all my racing expenses I have alot less stress, and the feeling of not having ANY racing debt at all at the end of the race season is a great feeling as well! Another great feature is the record keeping capability of having all your racing related stuff on an account that you have a record of every month, especially if your going to try and deduct your expenses from taxes (don't ask me how). Figure out what you can afford, figure out what you NEED (as opposed to what you WANT) and what can be sacrificed to get on the track in what ever capacity you choose. Believe me that if you've never been on the track, and you have some experience riding a motorcycle, you will absolutely have a blast on a track. The feeling of being able to ride a sportbike like it's made to be ridden is an exhilirating experience that you won't soon forget, most likely you will be so anxious for the next time you can do it that it will drive you crazy waiting (that's what's already happened to us crazy track junkies! ).

[endoracing]

I thought this was somewhat fitting here ... this is a file that I started last season when I started the journey to track riding. This isn't even a complete list of expenses, this is just what I have spent so far that was significant enough to make the list .. This doesnt include initial bike purchase costs or anything CCS related which I started this year. I havent raced yet and I've spent over $300 just in getting licensed an numbering my bike, etc.

Jacket $100
Helmet $450
Pants $300
Boots $200
Back Protector $175
Stands $105 + $170
Lap Timer/Beacon/USB $260
Tire Warmers $250
Generator $1059
XES Custom Leather suit $999
-F4-
Brake pads $100
Tires $260 + $270
Frame slidders $70
Race Bodywork $635
Fire Damage replacement parts $90
Rear Spools $30 + $15
Brakes $50
-F4i-
Wheel $160
Rearset risers $25
Subframe $150
Rear Spools $40
Chain Kit $220
Bodywork $475
Windsceen $35
Seat $40
Fairing stay $160
Tank $195
Caliper Seals $70
Sparkplugs $100
Damper $325
Coolant $70
Gauges $67
f4i=$2132
-----
$7720


Track days:
-2005-
$35 Membership
$145 Grattan - July 3rd - Tires - Pilot Powers
$140 Grattan - July 25th - Wrecked, 1st session
$145 Gingerman - August 21st - Duc Unlimited
$140 Grattan - August 29th - Fire
$249 Mid-Ohio - September 27th - Tires - Pilot race
$285 Gingerman - October 2nd, 3rd - Brakes sticking
-----
$1139

-2006-
$35 Membership
$150 Gingerman - Oct 1st
$145 Grattan - Aug 25th
$315 Grattan - July 2nd, 3rd
$145 Grattan - June 4th
$170 Grattan - May 21st
$145 Grattan - 7th
-----
$1110

that being said .. all I have to say is that it is worth every penny.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Great list, but too bad you didn't have a collection of the other costs and losses involved as well, like travel, hotel, fuel, etc.

[endoracing]

yeah, there are a lot more. Travel hasnt been too bad since I always crash at random places; friend's apartments, family's houses, and camping is my new favorite. Lets you hang out with the other riders for a while. I slept in the parking lot of a hotel last year because you had to be 21 to rent a room there (I'm 20.. I didnt know I was gonna mature that much in a few months). Joke was on them that time, saved about $120

Gas is about 50-100 depending on the track. My tow rig is an escort zx2 though and I get 20+ mpg even with my small open trailer and a bike. I think in my dads minivan it was a little over 100$ in gas round trip to road america from detroit (8 hours each way). Also, fuel for the bike - but I just use pump gas for now, no fancy racing fuel yet for me.

The biggest loss for me is wages. I work every friday, saturday and most sundays, so to take off those 3 days is a big chunk of change, mostly comming out of overtime time and a half pay. Those lucky enough to have weekends off dont get hit AS hard, but I'm sure it still hurts. Not to mention working monday morning after driving home sunday night from a long weekend of racing.

Unfortunatley I dont have any real exact dollar amounts per event like mike, and I havent even had the fun of spewing cash on racing yet so I can't even guesstimate that..

Just a sidenote; One reason my expenses are pretty high is that I've given up on spending as little as possible now even if it will cost me more later. Sometimes it is worth the extra few bucks now for decent parts/supplies/whatever. Not to mention if you ever want to sell some of it later, better quality stuff will be more likely to hold its value.

I hope I was in line with the point of this thread and I just want to reiterate that every dollar I've spent was well worth it.

[RRRR6]

I'll throw in my bike only costs.

$8,450 - 2006 Yamaha R6

650 Hotbodies bodywork with paint job
100 suspension tuning (i run all stock at this point)
400 Pirelli race tires
450 Scotts dampener
90 Vesrah pads
120 Spiegler lines
20 Motul brake fluid
40 Silkolene oil
15 tank of gas
750 leathers
100 boots - ebay
60 gloves - ebay
500 helmet
120 rear stand
20 safety wire kit

that totals about $3,000

So that's all you need to race really. I run in the middle of the pack now in C Superstock/Mediumweight Amateur races. Next year I will likely be towards the front with the winter mods I have planned.

Woodcraft rearsets
power commander
quickshifter
ignition module
arrow full system
penske rear suspension
520 conversion
190 rear tire

that's probably about $4,000

In summary, with the right rider a $15,000 bike can be very competitive...probably even an amateur champion. At $20,000 you're reaching your ceiling for superstock mods. the very best superBIKES however....sky's the limit.

hope this helps a bit

[nOObieRider]

good stuff to know, thanks

[kz2zx]

Originally Posted by RRRR6

I run in the middle of the pack now in C Superstock/Mediumweight Amateur races. Next year I will likely be towards the front with the winter mods I have planned.

So, it's a year or close to one later. How are your finishes?

[RRRR6]

Originally Posted by kz2zx

So, it's a year or close to one later. How are your finishes?

I haven't raced my bike yet this year and aside from rearsets and exhaust my mods didn't end up happening. I sunk to much time and money into my car.
i'll report back when i go to Summit in July.

[smashbox]

subscribed

[brent98rt]

i might as well add to the list ( for some reason after i post this and add the vost up i might cry)

Started with 2007 GSXR750
was a street bike that turned into a track bike than back into a street bike.

switched out the oil on teh front forks 30ish bucks
warmers. 375
tires 350
stands 350-375 cant' remember
lap timer 120
leathers 300
helmet 250
boots 250
gloves 70
slip-on 400 ish
spools 20
sliders 100 no cut, tore one side off falling in toe mud
upgraded sliders 70
SS line kit with pads 150
-1 and -2 front sprocket 60
race plastics off internet used 150
rent generator for 1 day 45
gas to track (local) about 30 bucks
gas to NM 200 total trip
gas for bike 25
trackdays 165 (local) i day
trackday NM 155 i think it was 2 days
-------
3295-3500 depending on where and when i went

Current
2006 GSXR600
full track bike only

rear sets 400
clip ons 100
spools 20
520 chain kit 190 with xtra sprockets
xtra rear rim 150
xtra front/rear rim, forks subframe engine(759) levers, brake rotros, cailber, 600
lap timer 175
warmers 275-375 i can't pick standerd or digital yet
plastics 351
paint for plastics 35
tires 2 sets 210 take offs.
new tires 330-375 depending on what brand i go with
sliders 110 with tie down adaptors
chain tool 100
stands 160x2
SS lines kit with pads 150
fluids ( was free) thanks Phil
leathers 400
gloves 89
boots 250
need new helmet 250
------
4405 ish bucks on the low side



I noticed i can do track days off take offs by a guy local that sells them from 90-110 a set. he had 150 sets last timei was there from DOT's to full slicks. Only maybe 60 sets were trackable still. others only had good center left

I made a choice and sold the 750 and th eold 600 for quads. and sold EVERYthing in the 1st listing. the second listing was me starting all over

so for those who are wanting to see the cost thats the cost to just get into the sport really. you can save money here and there from Ebay etc using take offs. buying used parts off here or other places

I want to do the suspension soon front will be 650 rear will be about 900
i want full exh 1,000 to 17000
PCIII and all the goodies which is about 600 total
but thats all later

to keep going to track days i am looking at
(local)
gas 30 to get there and back
gas for bike(s) 25-50
track day 175(179)
tires- as listed above. but i can start using my take offs from racing for track days
(NM- Arroyo Seco)
gas 250-300 there and back
tires same as above
gas for bikes 50-100
track day i think it is still 155 for 2 days not sure. haven't been there for 7-8 months


to keep going trackday wise its really not that much
this is all if i DO NOT WREAK and break shit.

over the last month or two i have maybe spent close to 19k on 2 bikes parts for both and a enclosed trailer

it adds up hella fast

ok off to cry

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Originally Posted by brent98rt

....over the last month or two i have maybe spent close to 19k on 2 bikes parts for both and a enclosed trailer

it adds up hella fast

ok off to cry

That's cool that you were able to get new stuff, congrats! I figured I would give a disclaimer here though because your situation may be very different than many other people.

As I've said many times before, often times it's not the actual costs of getting out on the track that stop someone from continueing, it's so often when your money starts going toward things that are not vital to keep going to the track. Probably the most common end to racing I see due to this is when people go out and buy a huge RV or elaborate transporter and trailer of some type then realize they don't have enough money to go racing anymore.

Everyones situation is different, some people could buy a new bike every season, get it set up, and not have it phase their wallet. Other people have enough trouble just coming up with the entry fees for a race or track day, those people need to not get distracted by the 'luxuries' of getting on the track and focus on what's important in their situation!

For me I had a 26' enclosed car hauler trailer built in '99 because at that time I thought it was what I 'needed', when at that time it was really the last thing I should have been buying. I've long since paid off that trailer and still have it today, but I pay $200 a month for a storage shed to store it so it's still like having a payment for it anyways. The irony of buying that traier is that the following couple years I was almost completely unable to afford racing at all.

Everyone should make a realistic assessment of what they truely can afford before any new or large purchases, make sure you'll still be able to continue getting out on the track with those new added costs / payments. For those who can afford the 'luxuries' of getting out on the track, ultimately it gives others something to strive for in the future if they think that's also what they want.

[RRRR6]

Originally Posted by GSXR RACER MIKE

That's cool that you were able to get new stuff, congrats! I figured I would give a disclaimer here though because your situation may be very different than many other people.

As I've said many times before, often times it's not the actual costs of getting out on the track that stop someone from continueing, it's so often when your money starts going toward things that are not vital to keep going to the track. Probably the most common end to racing I see due to this is when people go out and buy a huge RV or elaborate transporter and trailer of some type then realize they don't have enough money to go racing anymore.

Everyones situation is different, some people could buy a new bike every season, get it set up, and not have it phase their wallet. Other people have enough trouble just coming up with the entry fees for a race or track day, those people need to not get distracted by the 'luxuries' of getting on the track and focus on what's important in their situation!

For me I had a 26' enclosed car hauler trailer built in '99 because at that time I thought it was what I 'needed', when at that time it was really the last thing I should have been buying. I've long since paid off that trailer and still have it today, but I pay $200 a month for a storage shed to store it so it's still like having a payment for it anyways. The irony of buying that traier is that the following couple years I was almost completely unable to afford racing at all.

Everyone should make a realistic assessment of what they truely can afford before any new or large purchases, make sure you'll still be able to continue getting out on the track with those new added costs / payments. For those who can afford the 'luxuries' of getting out on the track, ultimately it gives others something to strive for in the future if they think that's also what they want.

very true...there's a huge range of budgets.

the lowest end really only requiring the following:
a bike that will pass tech
safety equipment
entry fee

the other end is sky's the limit..there's always something out there better, newer, etc.

I am somewhere in the middle. I haven't sunk a bunch of money into the bike because I realize the bike straight out of the box will outperform me any day. When I learn to make my speed in the turns, I'll start spending hundreds of dollars per horsepower on power upgrades.

[brent98rt]

yeah. I didn't "Need" the enclosed trailer per say. but it was nice to have. i wanted a larger one. but with the size of my truck i didn't want to pushit. plus thisones holds two biks and the stuff needed to run them.. i had a trailer that has 1/4 of the cost and held two bikes. this one is just nicer.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Originally Posted by brent98rt

yeah. I didn't "Need" the enclosed trailer per say. but it was nice to have. i wanted a larger one. but with the size of my truck i didn't want to pushit. plus thisones holds two biks and the stuff needed to run them.. i had a trailer that has 1/4 of the cost and held two bikes. this one is just nicer.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly wasn't questioning your choices, I just wanted to make sure that others understand that some costs are 'necessary' and others are 'optional' or 'luxuries'. I personally love the convenience of an enclosed trailer, it's a home away from home when at the track and allows me to leave everything in it and ready to go for the next event - just hook up the trailer and go. But I also started out with an open 8-1/2' x 12' snowmobile trailer that I bolted a truck bed storage box to the front of, I used that trailer for the 1st 3 seasons I raced.